Discover the Secret of the Algol Star System!

Phantasy Star 2 takes place a thousand years after the first game. You are an agent with an assignment: Find out why biomonsters are running loose on the planet Mota. The job quickly turns into a quest that leads you across the planet, above and below ground, underwater, into space, and out to another world! As you move towards the ultimate showdown with one of the meanest monsters ever to cross a video screen, you'll learn the true nature of the threat to the Algol star system and the story of your own heritage.

Fighting Friends and Companions!

Since Mota is so thoroughly overrun with biomonsters, getting from place to place on the planet's surface is pretty tricky. You'll need to battle these mutant beasties with swords and other edged weapons. You'll also learn some pretty powerful magic spells that help you defend yourself. And take heart! In Phantasy Star II you don't have to fight alone. You can control up to four players, yourself and three computer players. As you play the game, you'll meet seven computer characters willing to fight at your side. Each one has special magic and fighting abilities. The first to join you is Nei, your faithful companion. She is a half-mutant, half-human girl, who fights like a tiger and has powerful magic. Equip Nei with two ceramic fighting bars and she'll crush your enemies with blows from each hand! Nei knows the powerful RES magic, a healing spell, and quickly learns more spells to heal your friends and fry your foes!

Next, you're joined by Rudo, a hulking warrior who specializes in hunting down biomonsters. While Rudo doesnt have any magic ability, he gains high hit points quickly and uses a number of very powerful weapons with deadly efficiency, including the shotgun and the cannon!

Your other companions include a biomonster huntress who is a master with a spaceage type boomerang, a doctor, a biologist, a thief, and a mechanic. You can switch between players at your home in Paseo Town, using characters as situations demand. You even get to name them as a sign of friendship and intimacy!

Towns and Towers

Your travels across Mota and the planets of the Algol star system take you to many towns and factory towers. In towns you can obtain clues by talking with the townsfolk. Different shops can supply you with the items you need...if you have enough Mesetas, the local gold coin! You can buy weapons, armor, the monomate and diomate healing agents, escape pipes, and more.

ProTips:

When you explore Mota, be sure and return to your home in Paseo frequently. Surprises will often await you there!

Starmist can restore you to complete health and magical power. Get it whenever you can!

If you're wounded, hospitals will heal you for a price. If a member of your party dies, you can have them cloned back to life. Teleport shops can take can take you back and forth from any town you have visited and data centers allow you to save games for future play.

When you leave a town your destination is usually a factory tower. Each one is multi-floored and full of strange twists and turns and powerful biomonsters. You move from level to level via teleport plates. Each one takes you somewhere...but you have to figure out where! It could be to a room filled with treasure chests. If you're unlucky you might end up in a room filled with monsters! When adventuring in the towers it's best to make careful maps of where you've been. Exit whenever you run low on materials or hit points. You can get healed and try again!

To get the recorder from the Biosystems Lab Tower, use dynamite to open the center ot the fourth level, then jump to the bottom floor. You'll find it there!

In addition to testing your skill, each tower holds an item you need in order to get farther in the game! You'll also notice your skill level increasing much faster in towers. That's because the biomonsters you fight there are much more powerful than the monsters outside!

The only way to get the control cards from the command tower is by using Muzik Technique on the tower keyboard. To learn the technique, see Urbanchin in Oputa Town.

Weapons and Armor

In addition to the magic spells characters gain as they advance in levels, throughout the game you're able to buy weapons and items and learn different magic techniques-all of which strengthens your characters. Weapons range from the simple iron bar to swords fashioned from the magic metal Laconia. Each new weapon increases your attack strength. Some players can use projectile weapons such as a bow, a poisonshot, a cannon, and a shotgun, which can hit many enemies at once. Although any player can carry any weapon, each player can only use certain weapons and only wear certain armor items.

Just like weapons, armor ranges from very simple items, such as head gear or ribbons, to complex combat gear, such as Laconian scale mail. You'll find most armor for sale in the towns. You'll discover others in the towers. If you aren't wearing the right armor for the part of the game you're at, you'll know it quickly. The monsters you encounter will turn you into mincemeat!

Monsters and More Monsters

You don't have to be a genius to know that Mota and the Algol star system have a problem -- they're loaded with monsters! If you like crunching evil critters, this game is definitely for you! Nearly everywhere you go, you'll have to battle it out with hundreds of evil, slimy, magic-using creatures! Some, like Fire Ants and Mosquitos, are easily defeated. But make it as far as the Biosystems Lab, the first tower in the game, and you battle such loathesome creatures as Squats, Slugmesses, and Rotwoods. Journey farther and you're forced to put the sword to Head Rots, Cat Men, and Fan Bites! Each step pits you against mutant sword-carrying zombies, rabbits that explode into razor limbed spiders, flaming monstrosities, and even mechtech robo warriors!

Always attack when you encounter enemies more numerous or powerful than yourself. Running usually doesn't work and is often a losing strategy.

It takes all of your strength, cunning, and magical powers to make it through this monster madhouse! And in the very end, just when you think you can't take any more, you're suddenly in the middle of the battle of a lifetime. Win and what you discover will really surprise you!

Phantasy Star 2 has some of the best graphics and sound effects ever programmed into a video game. In the fight scenes you'll actually see your characters using their weapons and magic techniques. The details in the towns and encounter screens are as good as those in any standup arcade machine. But the game has some quirks that are a little vexing. For example, you can only save games in towns and you must enter your name each time. If you play for forty five minutes without saving in a town and are then killed, you lose playtime.

Take heart! During the game something happens to remedy this situation...but we're not going to tell!

You can count on months of incredible role play action. The Algol Star System wants you!

Use the F12 key to toggle mouse capture / release when using the mouse as a controller.

Game Reviews

Manufacturer: Sega

Machine: Genesis

When going against the Mother Brain, you will usually get one turn then have to wait as it takes three - or as many as five - turns before returning to you. David Whittle, of Knoxville, Tennessee, has found a way to cause the Mother Brain to take only one turn at a time. Simply hold "B" during battles.

Matt Sakey of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, has a great tip for defeating Neifirst. Without Nei, the battle with Neifirst in the Dungeon of the Climatrol borders on impossible. But if you follow these simple assembly instructions, you can revive Nei to help continue in the fight. If you have gone to the Climatrol before going to Piata, you are either very lucky or very skilled. Before leaving Paseo, take Shir to the tool shop and have her swipe some Moon Dew. Dump Shir and prepare your Climatrol party (Rolf, Rudo, Anna and Nei), giving the Moon Dew to Rolf. When Neifirst kills Nei (as she undoubtedly will), restore her with the Moon Dew. Neifirst, controlled by the computer, will think Nei is dead and will not attack her. If you have a fourth character, you can kill Neifirst easily.

reggie posted a review

Overall rating: 9.5

Manufacturer: Sega

Machine: Sega Genesis

As a Phantasy Star fanatic, I was delighted to hear that the sequel was destined not for the Sega Master System, but for the Genesis. When I sat down to play Phantasy Star II, I was immediately captivated. It's every bit as great as its predecessor, and it's far longer, tougher and graphically superior to the original. It's also a little less cute and significantly more dramatic.

The setting is familiar to players of the original: the three planets of the Algol system. Eons have passed since Alis, Myau, Odin and Noah defeated Lassie and Darkfalz. In the ensuing centuries, technology has come to Algol. The planets are controlled by the immense biocomputer Mother Brain. The climate has been altered, making Dezo and Mota (Dezoris and Motavia, in Alis's time) habitable. Resurrection has been replaced by cloning; data memory services store your memories. And the slimy stone dungeons have apparently been bulldozed.

But something's rotten in Algol. Mom Brain is experiencing a malfunction and has started producing evil abominations. And you, Rudo, agent of the government, have begun to experience strange nightmares in which a young woman battles an enormous, hellish creature. Alis and Darkfalz? Probably.

After a nifty animated prologue, you begin your journey. As in the original, you'll meet other characters who are interested in joining your expedition; you can travel with as many as three companions. However, you'll sometimes find that you have more volunteers than you have room for, so you need to determine the suitability of different characters for different tasks. You'll also come across situations in which characters you've come to depend upon will fall in the line of duty...and not even the cloning labs can restore them.

If you thought there were mazes in PS I, you'll be bowled over by the quantity of mazes in PS II. But mapping is easier here than it was in PS I. One element of the first game that is not present in the sequel is the first-person, 3-D view of the dungeons. Instead, the dungeons/mazes, are actually viewed from the same vantage point as the rest of the game: from above, with the surrounding area visible at all times. Thus you don't have the piecemeal square-by-square mapping of PS / that was so time-consuming; instead, you can sketch the mazes with less walking around. I miss the 3-D technique that was accomplished so smoothly and eerily in PS I, but considering the volume of mapping involved in PS II, the designers were doing us a favor. Moreover, the mazes (which are found underground, underwater, in satellites and everywhere else imaginable) are rendered with the multi-level technique found in many Genesis games, making them realistic in their own way.

Occasionally, there are scenes of interaction between characters in your party and characters controlled by the computer. For example, in one surprising sequence, a girl is accidentally killed by her father, who then takes his own life. These add a high quantity of drama to the PS II story.

The graphics offer great detail and superb use of color and shading. However, the battle sequences take place on a featureless grid that seems out of place. I preferred PS I's technique of displaying a background appropriate to the current landscape during combat. On the other hand, this new interface lets you view the scale of the creatures in relation to your characters.

The music in PS II is in stereo, but there's still not a wide enough variety for my tastes. There are ten themes played throughout, but as the game will take weeks to complete, those ten themes are stretched pretty thin.

I could tell you more, but I hope to just whet your appetite for this game. It's very user-friendly, with a simple but extensive menu system, and the battery backup allows you to save numerous games in progress. The plot advances quickly, providing a constant stream of new subplots - at one point, you even become a fugitive from your own government. Phantasy Star II is a complex and eminently enjoyable game that will give you more variety and challenge for your buck than any other video game. It's a worthy successor to the Phantasy Star name.

reggie posted a review

Overall rating: 9

A six-meg follow-up to the number-one Master System cart of all time. Features battery back-up to store adventures in progress, 16-Bit graphics and animation, and a new quest that's loaded with action, mystery, and more than enough challenge!

reggie posted a review

Overall rating: 7

Theme: RPG

Players: 1

Difficulty: Hard

The sequel to the innovative Master System game! PS 2 has you traversing many uncharted lands encountering and combating strange creature in your quest to defeat the mother brain!

reggie posted a review

Overall rating: 8

Phantasy Star II, also known as "Phantasy Star II: The End of the Lost Age" in Japan, is a video game published by Sega for its Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in 1989. The game was also released for the same platform in Europe and America one year later and is a sequel to Phantasy Star I, game released first time in 1987 for the Master System.

The gameplay of this spin-off is similar to the one of the first game. There is a turn-based battle system which allows the player to command up to four characters. There are a total of eight controllable characters in the game, each one with different weapons, armors, techniques and strengths. The main mission of the player is to defeat enemies in the overworld and in dungeons to advance to the next levels.

The game was later ported on Sega Saturn and Game Boy Advance and it was named Phantasy Star Collection. There was also a release for Dreamcast. Since 2008 Phantasy Star II is available for Nintendo’s Virtual Console Wii and for PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable. In 2005 Phantasy Star Generation II, a remake of the original game, was released in Japan for Sega Ages. The game is also available for Xbox 360 and Play Station 3 and also for Xbox Live Arcade under Sega’s Vintage Collection.

The story happens somewhere within the Andromeda Galaxy, in the Algol Star System. The main planet, Algol, has three other planets orbiting around it: Palma, Motavia and Dezoris. One thousand years ago the planet was freed up from the evil Lassic and continued to exist thanks to a giant computer called Mother Brain.

The game begins with Rolf, one of the characters, holding a monologue. He had a nightmare about a girl killed by a demon and heads to the governor of Motavia to receive a new mission. The series’ main villain is Dark Force. The Mother Brain starts malfunctioning during the game and Rolf must investigate the issues, but he ends up having to destroy the system.

The eight characters of the game are Rolf (a Japanese all-round fighter), Nei (a powerful woman with magic abilities), Rudolf Steiner (physically the strongest fighter in the game), Amy Sage (one of the weakest characters), Hugh Thompson (a weak biologist), Anna Zirski (one of the strongest characters in the game), Josh Kain (a fighter of moderate strength) and Shir Gold (probably the weakest fighter in the game).

The game was a hit back when released and was twice as good as the original game, selling almost twice as many copies all over the world. The game was often reviewed with 5 out of 5 stars or 10 out of 10, which proved back in 1989 that the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis was a popular and full of potential platform.

reggie posted a review

Overall rating: 7.5

Without a doubt the best selling game that Sega ever released for their 8-Bit Master System was Phantasy Star; an epic four-meg masterpiece that combined the perfect blend of role-playing adventure and graphics action. Add a battery back-up and a hundred hours of play time and you had one of the few cartridges that was worth the $60 + price tag.

Now Sega is planning to unleash the sequel to this fantastic game on owners of the Master System's 16-Bit cousin. Most of the same play elements remain, but the sterling quality of the machine's advanced graphics and sounds (not to mention the full six megs of power and battery back-up) make this cart a spectacular tour-deforce for the Genesis.

Awakening from a horrible dream, you are compelled to journey throughout Paseo and surrounding cities in search of an answer to the mystery of a Biosystem's accident that has created hundreds of creatures. Mother Brain, the all-powerful computer that was put in charge of Mota to bring peace and harmony to the planet appears to be malfunctioning, but before the problem can be diagnosed, you must travel to the Biosystems Lab and record the data concerning the monstrous events that have taken place. Your mission won't be easy, but with the aid of Nei, your half-human/half-monster friend, as well as other adventurers you meet along the way, you may have a chance of defeating the evil adversaries you meet and solving the quest.

reggie posted a review

Overall rating: 8

Phantasy Star II is a sequel in the best sense of the word — more of a good thing. Some videogame sequels unintentionally lose the winning formula that made the first game a hit. But Phantasy Star II delivers all the fun and challenge of the original Phantasy Star for the Sega Master System, plus the added depth and complexity that the 16-bit Genesis system can offer.

Phantasy Star II picks up the story one thousand years after the time of Phantasy Star, when Alis defeated Dark Falz to save the Algol star system. Since then, many things have changed. The three planets of Algol are now linked by extensive transportation networks and share a common culture. The names of the planets have been shortened over time; Motavia — a great desert in Phantasy Star — is now known simply as Mota, and climate control and terraforming have helped make it the agricultural center of Algol.

Coordinating the Algol civilization is a massive computer, the Mother Brain. For centuries the Mother Brain has controlled almost every aspect of life. But as the game begins, something seems to be going wrong.

As the lead character you are awakened by recurring nightmares — fans of the first game will recognize the dream as the conclusion of Phantasy Star, as Alis engages in combat with the evil Dark Falz. But why should someone a thousand years later dream such a dream?
Sensing that something is wrong, you report to your commander. He orders you to find a recording device at the biosystems lab — but this is only the beginning. As you carry out this task, more mysteries arise. Why has the lab been producing fierce monsters that threaten the people of Mota? And why are the dams of Mota locked, depriving the planet of desperately needed water?

With games like Miracle Warriors and Phantasy Star, Sega established itself as the leader in role-playing adventures for home video game systems. With Phantasy Star II, Sega has renewed that leadership with a very impressive title for its growing Genesis library.

reggie posted a review

Overall rating: 7.5

Snapshots and Media

Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Screenshots

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